Will Durst

Tuesday 6 August 2002 23:00 BST

'I attempt to make you laugh, out loud, against your will,' announces Will Durst to a small, awkward crowd. 'And you have a strong will.' Ice broken, he pushes on. Durst was the first American to be nominated for a Perrier, and in some ways his politicised stand-up is a reminder of when the comedy industry was, well, less of an industry. 'Hey, this is an arts festival. If you don't read books, you know someone who does,' he says, pint of black coffee at his elbow, excusing the kind of material that actually asks no more of its audience than that they flick through the papers now and then.

Anyway, gags about the Bushes, Gore, terrorism (oh yeah, plenty of that) and electoral rigging play with ease in these days of global conflict. He's amiable, deft, and never more than a few seconds away from another good gag.

The mystifying title refers to the swelling on the population graph of which Durst is a part; the baby boomers now running the world. It doesn't really work as an umbrella concept to bind together his material, which is funny enough for that not to matter. With Michael Moore pulling out of this year's Fringe, this is the place to laugh, learn and despair about America, all at the same time.